Serenade Me
by Kimsa Ki-Lurria
Summary: Shunsui x Nanao. "Nanao-chan, were you…singing?" Shunsui was used to waking up delirious, but this was taking it a little too far.


A/N: Originally, this was a little one-shot intended to be nothing more than silly, light-hearted fluff. And then in came Yadomaru Lisa, and it turned into something a bit more complicated. Not angsty or anything, but _Serenade Me _still addresses the relationship between Shunsui and Lisa and how it affects Nanao.

**Summary**: Shunsui x Nanao. "Nanao-chan, were you…singing?" Shunsui was used to waking up delirious, but this was taking it a little too far.

**Disclaimer**: I own neither Bleach nor the lyrics to the Japanese folk song "Cherry Blossoms."

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_Serenade Me_

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At first, Shunsui thought he was still asleep. He didn't feel like he was at home in bed; judging by the way his neck burned, he'd slept on a couch (it wasn't an unfamiliar feeling). His head was ridiculously fuzzy, and...someone was humming.

…Humming?

Shunsui opened his eyes and immediately shut them again after fresh sunlight sent waves of dull pain throbbing along his forehead. He lifted an arm to block out the light and groaned at his headache.

The humming paused. Shunsui felt an irrational need for it to continue and kept very still, concentrating on the silence instead of the buzzing in his ears. Whoever it was soon picked up again. Shunsui sighed thankfully and took his arm away from his face.

He was in his office. The previous night was a blur of laughing and warmth and sake, but he guessed that he had gotten so wonderfully drunk that he'd passed out on the couch and slept the entire night there. Shunsui wondered what time it was. It was still very early, if the sun's brightness had anything to say about it. That was odd. He didn't know anyone who would come to the office this early.

Except…

For a man with an impressive hangover and a crick in his neck, Shunsui moved with surprising stealth as he slid off the couch and got to his feet, being careful to avoid the empty sake bottles lying on the floor. He was alone in his office, which meant that the humming culprit, whose name he was quite sure of now, was just outside. Shunsui grinned.

The captain crept on tiptoe over to the sliding door nearest to the source of the sound. He was just about to open it and step outside when the humming suddenly turned into subdued singing.

"Lo, see the cherry trees that stand in the morning mist. I hear them speak to me in a tender tone. In the eve I love to see the waving willows…they stretch their hands to me strolling…alone."

Shunsui smiled to himself and pushed the door open with a loud _snick_. Nanao was sitting with a small, battered book open in her lap—she jumped to her feet at the sound of the door sliding open. When she was him standing in the doorway, she blushed furiously and stuffed the dilapidated book behind her back.

"Ky-Kyōraku-taichou! I didn't—I mean…" She gave him a quick, perfunctory bow, her face still flaming the color of his favorite haori. "I'm sorry, sir. I'll start the paperwork now."

She made to move past him into the office, but he stayed where he was, blocking her way. Nanao blinked and stared up at him in surprise, a bewildered look that quickly turned into an irritated glare when she saw his amused expression.

"Nanao-chan, were you…singing?"

Nanao's eyes narrowed even further behind her glasses. "No," she said firmly.

Shunsui chuckled. "Nanao-chan, you're not supposed to lie to your superiors!"

"Lie?" Nanao's eyes went wide again before she set her elegant face into a scowl. "Sir, I did no such thing—"

"Ah, but I heard you singing."

"I wasn't singing," Nanao insisted.

"Yare, Nanao-chan," Shunsui sighed dramatically. "Cruel, cruel Nanao-chan…it's unfair of you to hide such a beautiful singing voice from the world."

Her cheeks flushed with fresh color and she frowned at the floorboards beneath her sandals. "I don't have a beautiful singing voice," she muttered.

"Aha!" Shunsui tipped his hat to her in triumph. "My Nanao-chan admits! She was singing."

Nanao drew in a steadying breath before letting her eyes flutter shut as tried to regain her calm. Shunsui watched her black eyelashes light down on porcelain cheeks and smiled fondly to himself. His Nanao-chan was so much fun to tease!

"Isn't it too early for you to be up?" Nanao grumbled, at a loss for an explanation.

"When I wake up to the dulcet notes of my Nanao-chan's voice, no time is too early," Shunsui replied gushingly.

Out of reflex, Nanao reached out and hit Shunsui over the head with the book in her hand. "Infuriating man," she muttered.

Shunsui rubbed absently at the sore spot on his now-hatless head. "A storybook, Nanao-chan?" he said, eyeing the book's cover. "What are you doing with that?"

His lieutenant realized her mistake and snatched the book protectively behind her back. "It's…it's nothing, sir, just an old thing I found yesterday while I was cleaning out my room."

"But I have a good memory," said Shunsui, "and I remember seeing that book somewhere before."

Nanao pursed her pink lips and worked her jaw soundlessly. Finally, she gave in and snapped, "Fine. It was my favorite storybook when I was younger. Yadomaru Lisa used to read to me from it the first day of every month."

Shunsui froze. _Lisa?_

Nanao took advantage of his shock to slip past him into the office, hurriedly hiding the storybook into one of the room's desk drawers. She gazed thoughtfully at the closed drawer for a moment. He could practically see the memories gathering around her head like buzzing children. "Sometimes we would sing that song together," she murmured distractedly. "It was our favorite, because it was easy to learn and it reminded us of—"

She broke off and gave his pink haori a quick, uneasy glance before looking away. "Of…of springtime," she finished lamely.

Shunsui stooped to retrieve his straw hat, but he lay it on the desk rather than put it on his head. "Yadomaru Lisa," he rumbled. "It appears my previous lieutenant's ghost still haunts us today."

Nanao looked up sharply. "Sir, I didn't mean to—bring up painful memories."

And it was painful, when he thought of the misfortune that had befallen his former lieutenant, but he didn't want Nanao to feel guilty. He attempted to banish her worries with a smile. "Nonsense! No harm done. My beautiful, precious Nanao-chan could never hurt me."

Nanao shifted uncomfortably from behind the desk. She looked like she was glad there was something solid between them. "I really wish you'd stop calling me that," she said. "Beautiful, I mean. And yours. I'm neither of those things, and if you keep saying it, someone is going to find out."

Shunsui took several steps closer to her. Just as he'd suspected she would, Nanao showed her discomfort by tightening her grip on the edge of the desk. Her eyes shifted nervously from him to the door. _Yare, Nanao,_ he wondered to himself. _Can it be…?_

"And would that be such a terrible thing, Nanao?" he asked instead. "If someone were to hear us?"

She trembled at the use of her given name, bare without the silly endearments he gave it to lighten the mood. She knew he was no longer playing.

"Sir, that's highly inappropriate," she stated. "You are behaving like a…a flirtatious, hormonal _teenager_."

Shunsui grinned jokingly. "But you love me anyway, right, Nanao-chan?"

It was meant as playful banter. The words weren't supposed to strike a chord of truth—he would never be so hopeful. But there was no hiding the way she jumped at those words, as if he had caught her red-handed. Shunsui watched in awe as her cheeks turned an even darker shade of pink than before.

"Nanao?" he prodded.

"Is…is this what you did with her?" Nanao asked quietly. Her head was down, her eyes directed toward her hands pressed flat against the desk. She refused to meet his gaze. "With Yadomaru-san?"

The light mood fell away from Shunsui's shoulders like threaded silk. "Nanao," he said. "No, that's not…"

"How do I know?" She was shaking so slightly he could barely see the tremble in her bowed shoulders. "How can I know I'm not just…a replacement?"

Shunsui paused. He could hardly believe that the situation in front of him was happening. His Nanao thought she was a replacement. For a woman long gone, a woman he had never once felt as strongly for as he did with his current lieutenant. She thought he was _using_ her to indulge in the memory of a dead woman.

He had never despised himself more in his entire afterlife.

"Nanao," he said softly, "would I ever lie to you?"

She blinked and looked up at him from her bowed position. "No, sir," she whispered.

"Then I swear to you, Ise Nanao, you are more to me than Yadomaru Lisa ever was."

He noted in the back of his mind that he had been steadily moving forward until he was inches away from Nanao's tiny, trembling frame. She stared up at him with wide, wide eyes, eyes so wide he could see the pink of his haori reflected in their violet-blue depths. The clash of colors was beautiful.

"You were never a replacement for her," he continued. "You were ever only Nanao to me. Never Lisa. You are beautiful and kind-hearted and brave all in your own right, and I promise you, I would never use you to pacify my own misfortunes."

She barely looked as if she was breathing. He certainly wasn't; he anxiously watched her expressive eyes for some sort of hint to her thoughts. Uncertainty, trust, and a relief so deep and wide that he felt it rush through his own body—all these flashed across her beautiful face in the space of several seconds.

There were no words for his relief and his love. He reached up a hand and smoothed his thumb over her cheekbone. She shivered beneath his touch.

"Sir, this is…" Her voice failed her and she swallowed, wetting her lips. Shunsui found that he couldn't look away from her mouth…and he didn't mind at all.

"Sir, this is highly irregular," Nanao said. "It goes against every rule regarding—regarding us. I'm your lieutenant—"

"And I am your captain." Shunsui reached out and tucked a wayward strand of Nanao's hair behind her ear. "And I am telling you to forget the rules for just a moment, and just be yourself with me. Just be Nanao. I ask for nothing more than that."

Still she silently, motionlessly struggled against him. "This is forbidden," she protested, but he could hear the tremor in her voice and knew that she did not fully believe her own words.

"If I'm making you uncomfortable, Nanao," he said, "push me away."

She opened her mouth, closed it again, and shook her head. She couldn't. Not even when he leaned forward and pressed his lips against hers.

He felt her knees give out and wrapped an arm around her waist, drawing her close to him. Her small hands fisted in his haori, holding her up as she went limp in his arms. He trailed a hand up and down her back.

For a moment everything in the world fell away. There existed only him and this tiny, precious woman in his arms, whose timid mouth was doing things to his head that no one else's kiss had ever done before. He clutched her close to him, afraid that if he dared let go of her for even one instance, she would fall away and this moment, this moment he had been craving, needing for too long, would end.

Nanao pulled back first, gasping for breath, her cheeks flushed and her eyes shining. She reached up to touch his cheek timidly, as if to convince herself that he was real, that the moment between them had actually occurred. He smiled and rested his chin on the top of her head, content to simply hold her and feel her heartbeat against his own.

The words rumbled up from the bottom of his chest without prompting. "Oh, see the hazy moon rising o'er the banks, rows of cherry trees standing o'er the stream. How I love the cherry blossoms in the moonlight. How can I describe for you the night like in a dream…?"

And locked away within the desk, the storybook and the memory of a woman who once was were soon forgotten.

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A/N: Please review!


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